Permalink to Crypto Smartphones Hit Japan As Alibaba Awards Startup Powering Payments in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum
Crypto Smartphones Launching in Japan
Sirin Labs says it will begin selling its blockchain-based Finney smartphones in Japan this year, as part of its goal to sell 100,000 units globally.
Sirin Labs CEO and founder Moshe Hogeg told Cointelegraph the company has already moved about 16,000 units in pre-sales.
“If we can sell 100,000 units as our first goal, it will be a success.”
The startup says its phone supports Bitcoin and Ethereum has a security feature that detects and blocks suspicious connections, making it safe for users to execute mobile crypto transactions. In addition, Finney’s built-in cold storage wallet is designed to be more secure for crypto than ordinary Android smartphones.
“Even if the smartphone itself is hacked, its cold wallet is running on a different OS, and it is difficult to hack.”
For $999 (about 100,000 Japanese yen), Finney offers owners access to transactions through the built-in wallet, and a decentralized application store for DApps such as the popular CryptoKitties.
Popup Donut Shop
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted a video showing his 274,000 followers a pop-up donut shop that accepts Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash as payment. The payment is made by scanning a QR code with an iPhone.
Popup donut shop accepting crypto at @coinbase today. Doing more user testing important to improve usability. ???? pic.twitter.com/G6QH2vjWVL — Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 26, 2019
In response, a number of skeptics accused Armstrong of editing the video to make the transaction appear faster than it looks.
In a separate tweet, the co-host of Block Digest revealed the “first cannabis-bitcoin transaction” at a new dispensary owned by crypto investor and supporter Brooke Royse-Mallers.
History made! It's no pizza, it's the first cannabis-bitcoin transaction at @bitcoinmom's new dispensary! pic.twitter.com/OhZi2TbStL — Rick (@cryptorick) January 27, 2019
Pay With Moon
Meanwhile, Alibaba Group has selected cryptocurrency payment provider Moon as a top 36 global startup. Moon is a browser extension allowing users to make payments to online retailers with cryptocurrencies.
According to Moon’s website, the browser will spur mainstream adoption by allowing users to shop on their favorite e-commerce websites such as eBay, Ali Express, Amazon and Walmart.com.
“Pay with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin or Ether directly on Amazon.com.”
The Moon team is in Hong Kong! Moon was selected by @AlibabaGroup Entrepreneurship Fund as one of the top 36 global startups #jumpstarter #startmeuphk #hongkong pic.twitter.com/xaQWxXSsBh — paywithmoon (@paywithmoon) January 24, 2019
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